Qatar University team and QC delegation of volunteers visited Mauritania as part of the "Competitors" Radio Program in order to assess the field needs and get acquinted with the location of the development project. This visit is as part of the competition held with the Education City Team based on the humanitarian work innovation standards.

Based on the Mauritania’s development needs and after deliberations with QC office in Nouakchott  relevant to its intervention priorities and plans implemented in Mauritania, a multi-service center shall be established in Janaba, Brakna region. This area is classified as one of the poorest areas and is known as the "triangle of poverty". The project's total value is QR 1,100,000 and it includes a school, a clinic and an artesian well for the benefit of 25,000 people. The Director of the Information Department, Mr. Ahmed Saleh Al Ali, headed the delegation of Qatar Charity. This delegation included Qatar University team and social media activists.

The Qatari Embassy

The delegation visited the Qatari embassy in Nouakchott and met with the ambassador of the State of Qatar in Nouakchott, Mr. Abdulrahman Bin Ali Al Ajaj Al Kubaisi, who highlighted the huge development projects implemented by the State of Qatar, the Qatari organizations and the Qatari key figures in Mauritania. These projects are implemented in various fields including water, social housing, the health sector, education and social assistance provided to vulnerable groups. At the end of the meeting, QC delegation provided a souvenir to His Excellency the Qatari Ambassador for his great efforts related to supporting Qatar Charity and the Qatari organizations operating in Mauritania.

Visiting the Residents of Janaba

The team land travelled from Nouakchott to the targeted area, Janaba that is about 500 km away, 50 km of which are not paved, where they met the beneficiaries and witnessed the deterioration of health services and the village's need for water and infrastructure for education and others.

The center will add value to the region's residents as it will include a new school and hospital instead of the old narrow and dilapidated buildings that were not well-equipped. Pregnant women living in that area may need to travel about 90 kilometers by car to get to the nearest hospital, which threatens their lives and their babies’ lives.  The artesian well shall be equipped with a water tank and solar-powered pump, and will provide a drinking water to thousands of thirsty people during summer.

The Janaba residents hold a reception ceremony for Qatar Charity and the Qatari volunteers involved in Competitors Program. This ceremony was attended by Mr. Mohammed AL Mustafa Wald Mohammed Qazi, the municipality mayor, who welcomed the guests in his opening speech, asserting the residents' urgent need for support as they are suffering bad health and educational circumstances. Qazi extended his sincere thanks to the people of Qatar for supporting their brothers in Mauritania and other Arab and Islamic countries.

In a speech on behalf of the delegation, Mr. Abdullah Nasser Abdullah Al-Tamimi said that the Qatari people, philanthropists, donors and Qatar Charity hope all the best for the Mauritanian people, and thank their warm reception.

The Next Visit

Mr. Ahmed Saleh Al Ali, the Director of QC Information Department assured that the visit realized its objectives and left a good impression on the members of Qatar University delegation that made an impressive field visits. The delegation will talk about these experiences in the "competitors" weekly live radio program that starts at eight o'clock on Tuesday evening. The program is transmitted over Al Quran Al Kareem Show. Al Ali pointed out that the rival Education City Team will visit Sri Lanka at the end of this month to get to know the place of its development project and will identify the beneficiaries' needs hoping that the listeners of Al Quran Al Kareem Radio would cooperate with the rival teams to support the charity work.

Adding Value

The Director of QC office in Mauritania, Mr. Idriss Al-Sahel received the delegation at QC office in Nouakchott and made a presentation about QC's accomplishments in Mauritania. He added that the Qatari philanthropists spent more than QR 25 million during the last year contributing to the water, health, education and social affairs projects. He mentioned that the number of sponsored people was doubled during the last two years to reach 3,000 sponsored individuals.

The delegation paid a visit to a number of QC's projects including the Deaf Rehabilitation and Education Center in Nouakchott, where 500 deaf people will benefit from the project. The delegation also visited a sewing center, which is sponsored by QC and supervised by its partner, the "Philanthropists without Borders" Association. This center provides job opportunities for poor widows and divorcees.

A participation of 25 students from various faculties of Qatar University has recently been the final touch of "Tamkeen Club" camp’s activities, a camp sponsored by QC. The students formed four teams who defiantly competed looking forward to winning a value-based competition.

Time commitment, compliance and obedience; and benign competition have been the values around which the competition  revolved. The students have been exerting great efforts to challenge and to deservedly win the competition during the two-day camp.

Collaboration Agreement

"Our considerable interest toward universities’ students lies in supporting them and contributing to the development of their life skills, so QC sponsored "Tamkeen Club"  camp at Qatar University, provided and equipped a site where the camp took place in Al-Shahaniya city, Qatar.  The camp was such a precious platform to help the students develop their capabilities in the field of voluntary work, taking initiatives and time management.”, Ali Al Gareeb, QC’s Public Relations manager, stated. He, as well, mentioned that this activity was conducted as a part of the agreement signed between Qatar Charity(International Charity Organization) and Qatar University for the sake of supporting sporting and voluntary activities, and helping students who face serious financial problems.

Referring to the same issue, Mr. Faisal Al Haythami, the camp's supervisor, said that Qatar Charity contributed to the club's success by fulfilling the camps voluntary objectives that are represented in getting a rise in Qatar University students' values through taking up the challenge. He also pointed out that QC’s camp has actually been the right choice to undertake the activity resulting in reaching the peak of a howling success and achieving their goals. In addition, he showed his appreciation for the ongoing partnership between Qatar Charity and the students' clubs of Qatar University in many social areas and voluntary initiatives that take a remarkable role in community service and regional development based on Qatar’s vision for 2030.

Time Management

According to what Al Haythami said, “Time Commitment” came in the first rank among the most significant areas in the competition. Now that time commitment is closely linked to the fulfillment of the covenant which is one of the good morals in Islam, it’s an important value that is in need to shed the light on and promote. 

Compliance and Obedience

The second value which is worthy highly promoting through the competition,  and which also wasn’t less important than the first one is “Compliance and Obedience”. It included showing compliance and obedience for your parents within what pleases Allah, for your boss at work to facilitate everyone’s mission, and for teachers to encourage students to listen to them. Reinforcing this value in these fields help benefit the public interest.

Benign Competition

The third valuable area in the competition that Al Haythami talked about was “Benign competition” since it prevents students from cheating, deceiving others, and using twisted manners which contradict with the spirit of transparency. It likely encourages them to graciously accept the opponent’s winning and have a sense of sportsmanship calling for “My opponent’s triumph is mine”.

In order to effectuate the goals of Humanitarian Partnership Office, established at Student Activities headquarters of Qatar University to lay foundations of humanitarian solidarity values under the frameworks of Qatar Charity’s Local Winter Aids Program, along with its International Winter Campaign, the students of Social Work course at Qatar University have distributed winter bags and aids to workers as part of returning the favor to single labours.

Practical Outputs

Mr. Fareed Khaleel Al-Siddieqy, Director of Projects and Local Centers at Qatar Charity, said: now we reap the benefits of Humanitarian Partnership Office, established recently at Qatar University to enhance voluntary work, unlock the creative thinking potential of the university youth and take the initiative to design and implement realistic programs, which accommodate the potential and turn it into practical outputs in order to serve Qatari Community. We hope that QU students will benefit from the necessary facilities provided by the "Humanitarian Partnership Office" to bridge the gap between theory and practice and contribute to the building and developing the community through voluntary, humanitarian and charitable activities and works.

Instilling the values of Humanitarian Work

Khaleel Al-Siddieqy thanks the student of Social Work course at Qatar University for their good management of the project and adherence to the regulations and laws that govern and organize the work. This voluntary initiative contributed to instilling the value of humanitarian and charitable work in the hearts of female students participating in organizing the initiative as well as in the hearts of university students in general. Qatar Charity has been keen to support universities, schools and companies participating in the campaign launched for workers. It also helps them deliver such donations and contributions to their beneficiaries.

The students of Social Work course made efforts to prepare winter bags with the necessary supplies and then participated in distributing them to the workers.

Winter Campaign

The winter campaign launched by Qatar Charity at the beginning of the season is considered as a part of community contributions that Qatar Charity strives to provide in order to lay the foundations of social solidarity values, as it believes that the preservation of workers' rights and their safety are  important elements of the system of institutional values that works to make a positive difference in the lives of these workers, which will benefit to maintain safety and security in the community as well.

Continuous Efforts

Workers' Assistance Programs are core programs of Qatar Charity, whether they are cleaners, construction and farm workers, guards or others. The donations and contributions are received from companies, hotels and schools to provide support to workers in Qatar throughout the year, not only in winter.

It is worth mentioning that last year Qatar Charity has partnered with Humanitarian and Charitable Organizations, in cooperation with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to provide winter bags to single workers, in addition to providing first aid kit and conducting their medical tests.